A/N - I thought I wasn't going to update, but I had some inspiration as I watched the fights! So, here it is - chapter forty-one. Enjoy(:

There were still loose ends that needed to be tied. Three hours before our expected arrival, I had Kinnick drive with me to the courthouse. Seth wasn't aware I stepped away from the case, and Marcus was going to be next to me when I asked him about things no one knew about. There were things I needed to hear him say.

David leaned down to kiss my cheek as he congratulated me on my marriage and pregnancy. He made small talk with Marcus and me as he led me back toward an interrogation room. Metal chairs sat on either side of a cool metal table. I slid into a seat, asking David to join us.

Neither of us trusted Seth, including David. He wanted to make sure I was safe, and not because I was pregnant, even though that was half the reason, but because David and I were good friends.

The man I haven't seen in months came toward the desk in an orange jumpsuit. His hands were cuffed along with the ankles of his feet. He narrowed his eyes at me as he sat in his chair. He thought he would post bond, but Ashely left the moment she had the chance to. With all honesty, I didn't blame her.

"Oh," he grumbled. "I didn't expect to see you."

"There are questions I need to be answered."

"What makes you think I am going to give them to you?"

"I don't think you have a choice."

"My lawyer isn't present."

"This has nothing to do with your case."

"Is this about Kinnick?" He rolled his eyes. "What else do you want to know?"

"Why would you try to frame him?"

"If you want to know why then you are in for a long story."

I leaned back into my seat. "We have time."

He told me about Sara - Kinnick's mom. According to him, it was love at first sight but he had a problem with sleeping around. To my mom, he was the kid from the wrong side of the tracks. My grandpa hated him with a passion only Seth felt. Yet my mom continued to pursue him. There is something about loving a so-called bad boy that every girl loves, and boys love what they can't have. I guess that is why Warren did what he did.

Then words fell from his mouth that I never wanted to hear. "I never loved your mom. The only reason we got together is that I found out she was pregnant with you, and Joe stole Sara before I could convince her to have an abortion."

It didn't hurt me to hear that he didn't want me. This was something I learned at a young age and have grown accustomed to with time, but hearing he didn't love my mom was the part that restricted the air to my lungs. She loved him. Well, from what I could tell, or at least I thought she did because of how happy she acted when he came around.

He proceeded to talk. After my mom gave birth, all contact with Sara was lost. He moved on to join the police force and put a ring on my mom's finger. Everything was working out for him, and he thought at one point he really did love the woman he married until a nine-one-one call came in.

A domestic abuse call from a woman screaming for help. Her son shot her husband. He showed up to a young Kinnick with a gun in his hands. That wasn't the part that mattered to him, though. And I would have thought seeing a kid beaten unrecognizable would have been the part that worried him, but it didn't. His world stopped when he realized it was Sara.

Sara started to do drugs when Joe went to prison. She was left with a troubled kid who dealt with severe trauma from his childhood, and she didn't know how to raise him. Instead of being there for him, she kicked him out. Not before Seth could formulate how it was going to work out.

"Kinnick became nothing but a problem," he shrugged. "A kid who was going down the wrong path and Sara didn't care. She didn't want him."

He looked at me with hard eyes. "Who cares about a troubled teen who fights everything that moves and is constantly high on drugs? The night he saw us together, I got a call about a wreck. When I arrived, I saw Kinnick standing there, drunk off his ass, attempting to pull your mom from the car -"

"And I knew, I could make him go away. If I framed him for the death of your mom, he would sit behind bars for underage drinking and manslaughter. The possibility of him sitting behind bars for the rest of his life was slim to none. Ten years tops according to our laws."

"Then why didn't it work out that way?"

"Because a witness testified saying she saw your mom run the stop sign," he looked me dead in the eye. "Do you know how easily I concealed that case from the public? I thought my plan of getting rid of the kid was ruined until I went back to Sara that night, and I found her beaten unconscious by a man she owed money for drugs."

Every breath was stolen from my lungs. "You told me she was hit.

"No," his head moved back and forth. "I said she was in a collision. She hit someone else. Not the other way around."

"Then what happened to the driver she hit?"

"Gone before I got there," his shoulders lifted. "Maybe you should your boyfriend what happened."

"Husband," I snapped. "He is my husband."

"What?"

I placed my hand on the table to show off the large diamond on my finger. "Husband and father of my kids."

"Kids?"

"One on the way," I showed him the belly hid beneath my cardigan. "And we adopted one a few months ago. Now I am only going to ask you once more, what happened to the driver that hit her?"

"You aren't asking good questions," he tsked. "What you should be asking is why didn't I leave you the second your mom died?"

My eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"While the system finalized her death, all I had to do was wait until her papers were sorted and I would have inherited everything as first of kin," he growled. "The house, all of her fucking money."

"Then what happened?"

"That bitch had you written into her will," he seethed. "Everything was yours the second she died."

"And you didn't tell me?"

A wicked smile pulled across his face. "I thought if you fell in love with the bad boy, which I knew you were going to because your mom did the same, then I could save you from him. I thought if I spun the story that he killed your mom, then you would come running into my arms."

"What would that do?"

"If I could get your trust, then maybe you would sign everything over to me out of distress."

"But it didn't happen that way, did it?"

"No," he clenched his jaw. "Instead you left me and grew a backbone."

"Trauma does that to you," I slammed my hands on the table. "After all of those years of normalizing the abuse you put me through, I persevered."

"Abuse?" His eyes widened as I brought back to life all of those secrets he told me to keep quiet about. "Don't open your mouth about things you knew nothing about."

"No wonder I had trouble moving on from my rape," tears welled in my eyes. "Because I thought it was normal."

"What did I ever do to you?"

"You used to hit me for getting bad grades," I choked. "And every time you bent me over your knee, you told me not to tell mom. I stopped getting bad grades when I stopped being able to sit down."

"Boston, I -"

"You what? Want to keep this our little secret? Remember, that is what you used to tell me!" Tears streamed down my eyes. "It has taken me years to realize what Warren did to me wasn't normal! And here you are, telling me I could have gotten away ages ago! When I am done with you, you will never see outside of the walls of an institution, do you understand me?"

"What jurisdiction do you have?" Seth smiled.

"Mrs. Carson," an officer stepped inside of the room. "We have to take Seth to the courtroom, the judge is expecting him."

The smile stayed on his face as they walked him out of the room. I looked at Marcus, telling him to go through with what we planned. As I walked into the courtroom, I saw Kinnick sitting in the wooden seats next to Chase. John, Riley, Trevor, and Miles were also here. The moment my tattooed husband saw me, he stood to his feet.

His fingers threaded through my hair as he pulled me into his chest. "Are you okay?"

"I love you," I looked up at him. "I love you so much."

He kissed the side of my head. "Everything is going to be okay, Bo."

"All rise!"

My head snapped up from Kinnick's hold to see Judge Wattson standing before me. He nodded in my direction before I sat down. Seth looked back at me, shocked to find me sitting on the other side of the legal team.

As the prosecution fought back and forth with the attorney, it was brought to the judge's attention that although Seth was guilty of the crime, he wasn't in the right state of mind. After months of examination, a doctor believes it is in his best interest to serve time at a hospital where he can be treated for his illness rather than a prison cell.

"Seth Bennett, from here you will be escorted to the Iowa State Hospital," Judge Wattson looked at the man in the orange jumpsuit. "Where you will spend two years working with experienced doctors."

The buzzing in my ears silenced everything else coming from his mouth until we were leaving the courtroom. Seth walked past me. "I'll see you soon."

"No, you won't."

"I'll be out before you know it."

"If your next of kin signs you out," I shrugged. "If you would have paid attention, you would have realized it is in my jurisdiction to decide if you are well enough to leave."

"Excuse me?"

"You aren't married," I chuckle. "The only family you have is me."

His eyes widened. "You're my next of kin."

His breath hitched as I leaned into his ear. "I paid off the hospital. In fact, it was me who suggested the institution. So, they are funding off of my money."

He pulled away. "Does my attorney know about this?"

"Why no, he doesn't," a wicked grin grew on my face as I stared up at him. "I thought this could be our little secret."